


Bad Weather

by Xenafox



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 12:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenafox/pseuds/Xenafox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A night with a snowstorm, and a call that makes Kotetsu reflect on the ever present depression that eats at him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Weather

The world was white, snow swirling madly as the wind howled through the city. It was not a good night to be outside whether one was walking or driving. It was barely safe to even stand outside in the brutal wind. It knocked down some power lines, even some trees, and took out other various small things like trashcans. All of it added up to make a dangerous mess.

Despite that, Kotetsu was out in it, fighting through obscured vision to get to the top of a building where a hostage situation was taking place. As much as he thought the weather would make it so that folks wouldn’t come out and thus make it a safe night for him, he wasn’t that lucky. It happened that someone already inside an office building, someone who had gone to work before the weather turned to shit, decided it would be helpful to everyone to have a break down and threaten to kill those left in the office that time of evening along with himself.

Last Kotetsu knew, two people had been shot and the situation quickly escalated.

Barnaby was ahead of him, hopping through the snow like it was nothing, as Kotetsu continued to bump into signs and various objects he couldn’t make out. He was safe in his suit but he was getting tired, because pulling himself up and out of the snow required a lot of effort. Sometimes Barnaby backtracked and helped him out, but it was getting ridiculous.

All he saw was snow, and the frustration due to the evening took over at an alarming pace.

“Bunny, what’s the latest?” he asked, preparing for bad news.

He didn’t ready himself enough. “Four dead,” Barnaby’s voice came back. He sounded tired. “Fifth wounded.”

“Okay.” He couldn’t help but blame himself. Five people shot because he couldn’t get himself in gear. The deaths were his fault, certainly, he was sure of it. If he had gotten there in a decent amount of time without running into things, they could have saved lives. “How far?”

“A few more blocks. Ah, just around the corner. But listen, Kotetsu-“

The warning that Barnaby had begun was too late, because Kotetsu already activated his powers. Being that close, he felt safe about using them to stop slowing both of them down and just quickly get there to take care of the situation. His powers didn’t last long, but he could still get a much needed boost.

He heard a sigh but nothing else as Barnaby decided against arguing with him.

It wouldn’t have mattered, because Kotetsu wouldn’t have listened. In no time at all he was at the building, arm out, shooting the wire, and zipping up to the 6th story window. The action was on the 7th and he reasoned he could get there from the previous floor, study the situation, and then see what he wanted to do. He anticipated crashing through the window and stopping the criminal, even if talking him down would be preferable.

He reached his destination easily, and moved to look in the window. The man’s back was to him as he sat, no, relaxed in a chair and aimed his gun at a terrified woman in front of him. She wore black high heels and a glittery silver skirt. She might have a design on her black blouse but she was almost curled up in a defensive position, so Kotetsu didn’t get a very good look.

What was he to do? He couldn’t bust in there and risk the man startling, shooting his gun and killing her. There were already bodies. Kotetsu tried not to see them. At the same time he wondered what he had been thinking – how could he help in his current position? He couldn’t without causing problems.

What should he do?

He ended up not having to decide, because out of nowhere a wire attached to the man’s gun and it was jerked out of his hand. The man shouted but before he could move, Barnaby was on him. Barnaby had him apprehended like it was child’s play.

It really was, too. Kotetsu had overcomplicated it to be heroic, and he was embarrassed. Well, might as well do something, he decided, so he smashed the window and barreled in, acting as if he had just gotten there.

Barnaby knew he hadn’t. So did the cameras. He tried to ignore it. “Well, I’m here now! But I guess I didn’t make it in time.”

“You were right outside.”

“Ah-“

“But, Tiger, you made the right choice not to bust in, just assessing the situation for me. Had you broken the window and come in on the offensive, this could have become worse,” Barnaby said, giving Kotetsu a break, again.

Kotetsu could just never plan well, or he did stupid things. He tried hard not to be like that, but it was as if it was beyond his grasp lately. He just nodded as his power shut off, a little early.

“Why didn’t you just let me shoot myself?” the man was pleading.

“That’s not how we work…Walter, is it?” Barnaby had a firm grip on him.

Kotetsu began to busy himself, helping people up. “You don’t want to kill yourself. You only get one life. Think about, if not yourself, what your death means to other people.” He wished he meant it. The man killed four people. Kotetsu wasn’t sure he would have any life worth leading as he would be in jail for the remainder of it. He just didn’t like people dying.

“You should have let me shoot myself…bastards…I wanted to do it,” Walter replied, repeating himself as Barnaby got the police on the line with an ETA based on the storm.

Barnaby restrained Walter and started helping the people around. He and Kotetsu made it clear most of them would want to leave, despite the storm. The police would help them, but it had become a murder scene and they didn’t even want to think about how it would be trying to be in the same building as those bodies. In addition to all that, the broken window was letting cold and snow in. Maybe it was just that floor but the building was being deemed unsafe regardless.

Once people were up and moving to the lobby, Kotetsu managed to track down the gun. He should have done it first thing but it went out of sight and out of mind underneath a desk. The place was actually pretty nice, sleek black desks, shiny, new looking laptops, cozy chairs like the one Walter was in…

What a world.

Kotetsu stared at the gun. It was an awful world, wasn’t it? He found himself at times believing it was a struggle to live and actually enjoy it. There was a lot about himself that was pathetic anymore, and it didn’t help that Barnaby constantly had pressure on him to move to the First League and leave Kotetsu in the dust. His coolness was fading, what little he had after returning to HeroTV. He’d gotten a boost in popularity from the situation with Maverick, but that was long ago. It was no longer new, no longer so amazing as he fell behind the others on the show.

It would be a lie to say he had never considered taking himself out. They were never serious thoughts, just what-ifs and vague desires brought on when he was feeling his worst. Sometimes he messed up in a small personal way and all that bothered him came rushing back. Most of the time he would take that as a cue to either go nap and make his stressed mind take a break, or he’d find Barnaby and let him know what was going on.

He really needed to talk to Barnaby more, and nap less, though sometimes the two overlapped and he couldn’t feel guilty for that. Resting his face against Barnaby’s chest and feeling his heartbeat was better than any therapy or medicine, but the problem was they couldn’t always do that. It also didn’t fix things.

Kotetsu’s inability to think out a plan that evening wouldn’t be fixed by laying his head in Barnaby’s lap and looking up at his flawless face.

It wouldn’t be fixed by his other joys in life, such as talking to Kaede or having a drink with Antonio.

When he thought too much about that and realized it was all things he himself needed to fix and that he may not ever be able to actually do that, his mind would wander…

“Kotetsu? Give me that gun.” 

Concern was evident in Barnaby’s voice, tone gentle as he held his hand out.

“Huh? Oh, yea.” Kotetsu handed it over, maybe a little too quickly as he shoved it into Barnaby’s outstretched hand. Barnaby took it and walked away as Kotetsu was distracted by the blinking of blue lights – the police had arrived.

Relief came quickly and Kotetsu was able to leave, Barnaby right behind them. Their transport made it through the storm despite Kotetsu telling Saito again and again not to have it come out in the weather. There was a dent on one side, a big one and given how their transport was built – it must have really slammed into something.

They couldn’t exactly just send it back though.

Twenty minutes, they were changed and ready to go home. Through the snow it was and Saito insisted on at least getting them close to their apartment so they could get home faster. Kotetsu knew it would be safer to ride than to walk and since the vehicle was already out, he gave in.

Two hours later they were actually walking into their place, shaking off the snow and shivering. Kotetsu took off his shoes and immediately fetched a beer, still in soaked clothing from all the snow.

“You should change,” Barnaby commented, working on getting out of his wet clothes after following Kotetsu.

“I’m fine like this.” Kotetsu popped open the beer and decided he’d rather enjoy it from a glass. He found a tall one and wasted no time fetching ice cubes for it. He poured from the bottle and that’s when he gave up avoiding the angry stare he was getting from Barnaby. “What!?” he snapped.

“You tell me, Kotetsu. You’ll get sick if you stay in those clothes.”

“Whatever. I’ll change out soon.”

“What was that, back there with the gun?”

Oh, God, he just had to bring it up. “Nothing, Bunny. I was looking at it and thinking about stuff.”

“And were your thoughts based on what that man was saying?” Barnaby asked. His voice sounded strained, and it was clear he didn’t want to say out loud ‘did it make you want to shoot yourself?’

Kotetsu’s mouth dropped open, and when he gathered himself he snarled. “You know me better than that Barnaby!”

“I know you well, now tell me: What was going through your head?”

“I..look. I wasn’t thinking about doing it.” He needed to force himself to calm down, because being angry at Barnaby would fix even less than kissing him. “I mean, I wondered what would happen, and I thought about the times I’ve had trouble handling everything, but I don’t seriously want to…do…that.”

“I know you wouldn’t actually do it.” Barnaby began to strip again, working on his pants. “But I knew it was crossing your mind somehow.”

“Yea well, it does from time to time. Sorry if that scares you, but I don’t know how to stop it.” He sounded cold. He sounded like an asshole and he hated himself for acting so defensively when Barnaby was just worried.

“It does scare me.” Barnaby dropped his pants, stepped out of them and shook them off, and did so with the other leg. He looked at Kotetsu, a sad expression on his face. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t. I’m not stupid,” Kotetsu said, sipping his beer.

“If you’re not stupid, get out of those clothes.”

“…”

Barnaby rolled his eyes and moved forward. “Not in that way.” Actually Kotetsu hadn’t been thinking that, but he didn’t bother correcting Barnaby. “Get out, get warm, because I don’t want you sick. You shouldn’t get sick.” His hands shook as he began to do it himself, unbuttoning Kotetsu’s jacket and then his vest.

“I’ll be fine, Bunny.” Kotetsu hesitated, and then took both of Barnaby’s hands between his own and raised them to his lips. He kissed Barnaby’s fingertips. “I’ll be fine.”

Barnaby stared at him and swallowed. He only pulled back when Kotetsu pushed his hands down and let go of them. “How do I know…?”

“I don’t actually want to hurt myself. I have you, and I have Kaede, and I would never hurt you two like that.”

“True…”

“I don’t like death, Bunny, and that doesn’t change for myself even when I feel so depressed. I think about it, late at night, or when I feel stressed out, but I have no plans for it, no desire.” He was embellishing a little – just a little. At the back of his mind there was always some very vague sort of plan. It was similar to a plan anyone might make in the case of their death though, taking care of loved ones and so on.

“If…you mean that, you’ll get out of the wet clothes,” Barnaby said, looking away. “You’ll get out of those and I’ll plug in the Christmas tree.”

The lights on the tree, Kotetsu did like those. They always made him feel warm inside and brought his mind back down to earth. He’d heard a story once that Christmas was in the winter because it helped people through the dark, cold months of the year. There was likely little to no truth to that since it was primarily religious, but he couldn’t help thinking it made sense.

“Okay, Bunny. I’ll change, you get a thick blanket, and we’ll sit on the couch.”

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Barnaby asked, his voice sounding a little more cheery.

“No.” Kotetsu shook his head and leaned forward to give Barnaby a peck on the lips, a small spark igniting from the light touch. He would never leave Barnaby alone. “I really just want to watch the snow.”

Barnaby nodded and smiled softly. “Okay. Just make sure- okay. I’ll be on the couch,” he said, slowly turning away even though he only got a few steps before he paused and looked over his shoulder. He finally left the kitchen and went toward the living room, just stepping over his clothing. Kotetsu thought he detected a slight shiver in Bunny, but that was alright. They’d both be warm soon enough.

With that in mind he shed his clothes too, collecting Barnaby’s from the floor. He must have been shaken to just leave his stuff there. Barnaby never did that, and Kotetsu hated thinking that he scared him more than he had realized.

He hurried to bring the clothing to the hamper. Knowing how much he worried Barnaby killed him a little inside, leaving all the more reason for him to move quickly and join him on the couch.


End file.
